From the movie theater through Bigger’s fight with
Gus
Summary
Was what he had heard about rich white
people really true? Was he going to work for people like you saw
in the movies . . . ?
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Bigger decides to spend twenty cents on a movie to help
dispel his growing fear of robbing Blum. He and Jack go to a movie
theater, and they masturbate while watching it and thinking about
their girlfriends. Afterward, they discuss Bigger’s upcoming job
interview with Mr. Dalton. Bigger says that he would rather go to
jail than take a job through the relief agency. A newsreel begins,
showing the young daughters of wealthy families playing on the beach
in Florida. The camera focuses on Mary Dalton as she kisses a handsome man,
identified only as a “well-known radical.” A commentator reports
that Mary has shocked her family by becoming romantically linked
to this man and that her parents have tried to put an end to the
relationship. Bigger realizes that the scandalous young woman is the
daughter of his prospective employer, Mr. Dalton.
The movie Trader Horn begins. Watching
scenes of black men and women dancing wildly to the beat of drums,
Bigger imagines a party at a rich, white home. For the first time,
he contemplates the job with the Daltons with great interest. Mary
Dalton, he thinks, might be a “hot kind of girl” who would like
to come see his side of town, and who might bribe him to keep her
secrets from her parents. Bigger also remembers his mother’s constant
advice that wealthy white people treat black people better than
they treat poor whites. Bigger thinks that perhaps the Dalton family
would be easy to get along with because they are so wealthy. His
thoughts return to the robbery of Mr. Blum. Now that he is more
interested in a real job, he berates himself for taking a “fool’s
chance” with the law.
When Jack and Bigger return to Doc’s at three o’clock,
Bigger is secretly glad that Gus is not there yet, as they cannot
carry out the robbery without him. As the group anxiously awaits
Gus, nervous tension gathers in the pit of Bigger’s stomach, as
he has convinced himself that he no longer wants to follow through
with the robbery. When Gus finally shows up, the anxious Bigger
attacks and beats him violently without provocation or warning.
He then pulls a knife on Gus and forces him to lick the blade. Bigger
accuses Gus of ruining the plan by being late, although Jack insists
there is still enough time. Gus flees the premises, and G. H. hints
that Bigger had wanted to spoil the plan all along. Bigger threatens
G. H. and Doc draws a gun. Bigger slashes the cloth on the pool
table before slipping out the door and heading home. Though he does
not know it consciously, he feels “instinctively” that it was his
fear of robbing a white man that drove him to attack Gus. Bigger’s
survival depends on how well he can bury this knowledge deep inside
himself.
Analysis
In this section, we see that popular culture
serves as a release for Bigger—a way to help him forget his misery—but
that it also serves as a form of indoctrination. As Bigger has limited
contact with white people, his understanding of the white world
comes primarily through the popular culture of movies, magazines,
and hearsay. The movies focus on the gleaming,
opulent world of fabulously wealthy white Americans like the Daltons.
Blacks, if they appear in the movies at all, are consistently depicted
as one of two stereotypes: either the dangerous, radically foreign,
and inferior savage; or the clownish, humble, and ignorant black
servant. The white society that produces this popular culture, then,
has control over the social dialogue that determines the meaning
of the color of Bigger’s skin and hence his identity.
Ultimately, white America controls Bigger’s relationship
with his own community. He is too afraid to challenge white authority,
so his own community becomes the target and outlet for his relentless
terror and frustration. He has an intense desire to test the boundaries of
the subservience white America has assigned him, but he is ultimately
too afraid to carry out the robbery of a white merchant. Instead,
he transfers his hatred and fear of whites onto his friend Gus.
Gus is a safer target, just as the black merchants are safer targets
for the gang’s robberies. This violence against members of their own
community, however, ruins blacks’ chances of becoming a real community
and keeps them alienated and weak.
The wall of isolation behind which Bigger hides alienates
him not only from his friends, family, and community, but also from
himself. His fear, rage, and conflicting and unexamined desires
torture him. He instinctively understands that it is better to fight
Gus than to rob a white man, but he must keep this understanding
buried beneath his consciousness. There exists, then, a gulf between
what Bigger feels and what he knows. Unable to face the reality
of his life as a black man, Bigger is forced to keep his thoughts
and his feelings separate. His consciousness is divided, just as
the members of his own community are divided and unable to come
together into a cohesive and productive whole.
